Freed From Sin

Good morning. Wonderful to be with you to open God's Word together.

Let me pray before we begin.

God, you are our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore, we will not fear.

Father, though there are many things in this world that can cause us to fear,

finding our refuge and our hope in you comforts us.

We are grateful for you this morning that you have given us the Word of God.

You have blessed us with the Spirit of God.

And we pray that this morning as we open your Word,

we may be able to open our hearts to the Lord.

We pray that this morning as we open your Word,

that the entrance of your Word into our hearts will bring light and hope

and life and strength and wisdom and understanding

so that we might live lives that glorify you.

For those who have come in here this morning fearful,

please reassure them that you are indeed the glorious King over all.

Please reassure them that you are indeed the glorious King over all.

For those who are anxious,

I pray that you would comfort their hearts.

For those that are discouraged,

that you would give hope.

For those that are rejoicing,

I pray that you would help them to sing along with the Spirit of God

for the joy that is given us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

For the young people here,

help them to sing along with the Spirit of God.

And so align their lives with your purpose and your Word and your Spirit

that they bear much fruit.

For those that are old and frail,

Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us by your grace

that we might continue to bear fruit even into old age.

For the moms and dads that are here raising children,

God, give them grace and wisdom and strength.

To love their children and to guide them,

to seek to instruct them and do it with great wisdom.

For all that are here, Lord, who may not know you,

we're thankful that they're here

and pray that you might open the eyes of their hearts

to see that Jesus Christ indeed is the hope of the world

and that he has come so that we might have life.

Now, Lord, as we open this passage of Scripture,

grant us grace and understanding

that we might glorify your name

through understanding and obeying it.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

This morning we're concluding our series,

Devoted to God.

And when we began it,

we talked about what devotion is,

the heart of devotion says to God,

I believe in you.

I belong to you.

You've been so good to me.

I love you and I am yours.

I want to live my life before you and for you.

I want to please you.

And when I'm at my best,

this is how I'm thinking.

We said Jesus is the perfect example

of devotion to God.

One day as he was teaching the people,

he referred to his heavenly father and said,

I do always those things that please him.

I love that statement.

I think it expresses the true heart of devotion,

living our lives in a way that pleases God.

And that day,

I said,

only those who were listening to him

were apparently in agreement

for the very next verse,

John 8, 30 says,

as he was saying these things,

many believed in him.

All right, so far so good.

But Jesus, who knows the hearts of men,

knew that their so-called belief was shallow

and that they had a problem they weren't aware of.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,

if you abide in my word,

you are truly my disciples

and you will know the truth

and the truth will set you free.

Well, those words, instead of setting them free,

set them off because they answered him,

we are Abraham's children

and we've never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

Jesus answered them and said,

truly, truly, I say to you,

everyone who commits sin

is a slave to sin.

A slave does not remain in the house forever.

So if the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed.

Truly, truly, I say to you,

everyone who commits sin

is a slave to sin.

If we kept reading in John chapter 8,

we'd see that things went downhill from there

and that by the end of the chapter,

they are picking up rocks

to throw at him.

What got them so upset?

Well, they felt that he had insulted them.

He said, you need to do more

than just listen and agree.

You need to become my disciples.

You need to abide in my word.

Then you will know the truth

and the truth will set you free.

They said, what do you mean free?

We're Abraham's children.

We've never been slaves.

Well, that's not really true.

Fact check that.

What about 400 years?

What about 400 years in Egypt?

But Jesus didn't point that out.

He said simply, no, you're not free.

Everyone who commits sin

is a slave to sin.

Jesus wasn't trying to insult them.

He was trying to help them.

They were ignorant of their spiritual state,

their true condition.

They were slaves to sin

and didn't know it.

But Jesus came to set the captives free.

He said earlier in the gospel,

I did not come to condemn the world,

but to save the world.

That's right.

He didn't come to condemn the world

because the world stands condemned already.

And that's the problem.

Paul put it this way.

He said, all have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God.

All have sinned.

And the wages of sin is death.

Sin is a problem for every person

who has ever lived.

It is the very problem

that Jesus came to solve

by His death and resurrection.

In order to be devoted to God,

we have to come to grips

with this problem of sin.

And what Jesus was talking about

in John chapter 8,

whoever commits sin is the slave of sin,

is also what Paul addresses

in Romans chapter 6.

But here he is writing to Christians

whose sins are forgiven

and who are forgiven.

And he's talking about the sin of sin.

But there were some things

about their relationship to sin

that they didn't understand

that they were ignorant of.

And he says to them,

don't you know,

and we're going to talk about

what Paul said they didn't know.

They were apparently

still ignorant about sin.

They didn't understand

that they were no longer enslaved to it.

And in order to be devoted to God,

we have to understand

some things about our relationship to sin.

Now it's changed

because of Jesus.

The relationship that we had

with regard to sin

before we were Christians

is decidedly different now.

But in what way

is that the case?

So let's read Romans chapter 6

verses 1 through 14

and then we'll talk about it.

I've taken the liberty

of emphasizing certain words

that will come back to me

Paul begins in chapter 6

in verse 1.

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin

that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who died to sin

still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us

who have been baptized

into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore

with him by baptism into death

in order that just as Christ

was raised from the dead,

raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father,

we too might walk

in newness of life.

For if we have been united

with him in a death like his,

we shall certainly be united

with him in a resurrection

like his.

We know that our old self

was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin

might be brought to nothing

so that we would no longer

be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died,

has been set free from sin.

Now, if we have died with Christ,

we believe that we will also

live with him.

We know that Christ being raised

from the dead

will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion

over him.

For the death he died,

he died to sin once for all,

but the life he lives,

he lives to God.

So you also must consider

yourselves dead to sin

and alive to God.

God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore

reign in your mortal bodies

to make you obey their passions.

Do not present your members to sin

as instruments for unrighteousness,

but present yourselves to God

as those who have been brought

from death to life

and your members to God

as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion

over you.

Since you're not under law,

but under grace.

Jesus has freed us

so that we might be devoted to God.

Now, I'm speaking today to Christians,

to people whose sins are forgiven.

If you're here today

and you're not a Christian,

we are so glad you're here.

If you're checking it out,

you are so very welcome to be here.

All of us have once

been in your shoes.

We've been in your shoes.

But we have believed

that Christ died for our sins

and so we bear

a different relationship to God

because of that

and a different relationship to sin.

We Christians believe

that Jesus Christ died

to free us from our sin.

That simple statement

is true.

It's also very profound

and very deep.

It's so deep we can't really plumb

the depths of it.

There's much that can be said

about Christ,

about the Christian,

and about sin.

What exactly now

is our relation to it?

And it's a bit complicated.

Maybe you have relationships

with people that are a bit complicated.

Well, this is a complicated relationship.

One way that can help us

to understand it

is to try to view sin

in three different aspects.

The penalty of sin,

the power of sin,

and the presence of sin.

We'll take them up one by one.

First of all,

the penalty of sin.

This is perhaps the thing

we're most familiar with.

And what's important to note here

is that the penalty for sin,

which is death,

eternal death,

has been paid for

past tense,

by Jesus Christ

in His death on the cross.

Paul said that the wages of sin

is death,

but the free gift of God

is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Christians are people

whose sins are forgiven

because Jesus paid the penalty

for sin.

He paid the debt

that we deserved to pay.

The penalty,

the punishment,

has been passed

past tense,

paid by our Lord Jesus Christ.

There's different ways

we talk about this.

We say Christ has made

satisfaction for our sins.

On the cross,

His blood,

which represents

His life poured out in death,

His blood satisfied

for my sins.

And that is why

there is therefore now

no condemnation,

no condemnation

to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Because Christ Jesus Himself

suffered the condemnation

that was due to me.

And this really is the subject

of our worship.

My sin,

oh the bliss of this glorious thought,

my sin,

not in part but the whole,

has been nailed to the cross

and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord,

praise the Lord,

oh my soul.

This is why we sing.

This is why we're grateful.

This is why we're happy.

This is the chief benefit

of the gospel.

Christ died for my sins

and I am forgiven.

It's very simple.

Christ died for my sins.

Child can understand it,

but it's very, very deep.

He died for my sins.

He was my substitute

and,

and sacrifice.

As substitute,

He died in my place.

As sacrifice,

He died for my sins.

Therefore,

no condemnation,

now I dread.

Jesus and all is mine.

Alive in Him,

my living head

and clothed with righteousness divine.

So many hymns.

We could quote the words.

Christ died

to free me from my sins.

He died,

He died to sins penalty.

When we're baptized,

that's actually our declaration

that we have believed in Christ's death

and that our sins are washed away.

And when we are baptized,

we are saying what we believe

in our act of obedience,

responding to Christ's command

that we who are disciples

should be baptized

in the name,

singular,

of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

So in baptism,

God puts His name on us

and says,

you belong to me.

Christ died for our sins.

Now,

in Romans chapter six,

we're coming into the middle of a discussion.

It starts off with a question.

Paul has been declaring the gospel of free grace.

He's been saying that

because of Jesus' death and resurrection,

believers are justified.

They have their sins forgiven

freely and simply through believing.

That's all they have to do.

They have to just believe in Jesus

that He died for their sins

and then their sins are forgiven

and they receive the gift of eternal life.

It almost sounds too good to be true.

And it all comes as a gift.

All the things he's talking about before chapter six,

justification,

peace with God,

forgiveness.

It's not by our works.

It's not by our efforts.

It's by Christ's work.

And all I have to do is believe in that.

And just before Romans six,

Paul makes the statement,

he says,

where sin increased,

grace abounded all the more.

Now, Paul had opponents who said,

who misrepresented him

and accused him of saying something like this.

Oh, Paul, I understand.

You're saying that where sin increased,

grace abounded.

So the more we sin,

the more grace abounds

and the more God would be glorified

and forgiving us.

So I guess we should continue sinning

and sin all the more

so that grace abounds all the more.

Is that what you're saying?

saying, Paul? And of course, his answer to that mischaracterization, that misrepresentation

provides the question and answer that begins chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to

continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means. That's as emphatic as Paul can make

a refutation. And then he says, don't you know that we have died to sin? How can we who died to

sin still live in it? Don't you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were

baptized into his death? Paul's emphatic answer to this travesty, this mangled misrepresentation,

is to say, continue in sin by no means. I don't know if the name Rasputin rings any bells,

but in the history of Tsarist Russia, just as Russia was coming to,

and there was this man named Gregory Rasputin. He was a Russian mystic or holy man. He must have

had a great deal of charm because he managed to wheedle his way into the royal family. This is

around the turn of the 20th century. One of the Tsar's children had hemophilia, and Rasputin

claimed to be a faith healer, and he prayed, and the child experienced some healing, and so he was

then received at court.

So this is a really infamous guy and kind of a creepy guy, but he had this kind of theology.

It was that the more we sin, the more God forgives and gives grace, and the more he is glorified.

He was also a womanizer, and his preferred method of seduction was, let us sin, my dear, if sin it be.

God will be glorified.

God will be glorified in forgiving, and he was actually successful in that method of seduction.

So he was one who actually practiced this kind of antinomian theology. Let's sin all the more,

and then grace will abound all the more. That is more than serious error, and Paul

comes against it with all that he can say. He says, by no means, how can we who died

to sin? How can we who died to sin? How can we who died to sin? How can we who died to sin?

Still live in it. Don't you know that all of us who have been baptized were baptized into

his death? We were buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

His argument is, we died to sin. How can we still live in it? And the rest of the passage goes on

to explain our current relationship to sin. As I said, it's kind of a complicated relationship,

but what it does is it gives us the opportunity to live in it. It gives us the opportunity to live in

sin. What it boils down to is this. Sin's power in our life has been broken. So, okay, we just

talked about the penalty of sin. That's past tense. Now, let's talk about the power of sin.

And the main point here is that the power of sin has been broken in our lives.

That word power is important. It has to do with sin's authority, sin's

dominion. We're no longer under sin's dominion. We're no longer under sin's reign,

R-E-I-G-N, sin's reign. We're no longer enslaved to sin. It's no longer our master.

Now, let's just drill down a little deeper here. Every true Christian, everyone who knows Christ

died for her, has an aversion to sin.

And a desire to live a holy life, a life that pleases God. That desire might burn brightly,

or perhaps at times not so brightly, but it's there. The true Christian may fall into sin,

but he will never be comfortable when he sins. He'll always want to restore that broken

relationship with God. In this sense, the Christian's kind of like a cork. If it gets

shoved out of his body, he'll always want to restore that broken relationship with God.

If it gets shoved down underwater through sin, it's going to want to come back up to the surface

and get things right. So what I'm saying is the true Christian loves God and hates sin. He knows

that sin is the reason why Jesus had to die. And yet there are occasions when we do sin,

sometimes grievously. Well, why is that? Well, the power of sin that has to do with the reign of sin,

the mastery of sin, the domination of sin over it,

that domination has been broken. The master-slave relationship that we once had with sin

has been destroyed, but sin still remains. Now, Paul's argument goes like this. Jesus Christ died,

Jesus Christ was buried, and Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That's a simple gospel message,

right? Through faith and the working of the

Holy Spirit, I have been brought into a spiritual union with the risen Jesus Christ so that I

participate in his death, burial, and resurrection. So the great truths of Christ's death and

resurrection are not only historical facts and not only the experiences of Jesus Christ himself,

but they are also spiritual reactions,

new realities, new creation realities of experience for the Christian believer. In other words,

we share in those experiences with Christ. We died with Christ to sin. We were buried with him

in baptism, and we come up out of the waters of baptism to walk with him in newness of life,

resurrection life. So,

Jesus' story is not just Jesus' story, it's my story as well. It's your story if you're a Christian.

Now, maybe you didn't know that, but it's true. And Romans 6 declares the believer's union with

Christ. Simply by looking back at the language Paul uses, we can see this. He actually points

to baptism to illustrate it. I'm going to look at verses 3 through 5 again. Do you not know

that all of us who have been baptized into the Lord have been baptized into the Lord?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into the Lord have been baptized into the

Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father we too might walk

in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly

be united with him in a resurrection like his so the preposition with it's a preposition of

association it shows that I'm in union with Christ when Christ died he died to the power

of sin when Christ rose death no longer had dominion over him now he cannot die again

we are in union with him so what is true for him is also true for us because he did all of this

for us now our old self is crucified with him so that we would no longer

be united with him

no longer be enslaved to sin verse 6 no longer enslaved to sin

well

therefore Paul says as a result of this do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies

it has no right to so you should not be enslaved to sin

let it reign it has no legal right to make you obey it

since Christ's death has broken the dominion of sin over us in simple language you don't

have to sin you have been set free the power of sin's been broken Charles Wesley famous hymn

oh for a thousand tongues he breaks the power of canceled sin

sin. He sets the captive free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me.

He breaks the power of canceled sin. He doesn't just cancel it with regard to the penalty. He

breaks the power of it. So, sin's power has been broken. The penalty of sin has been satisfied

because of Christ's death, and the power of sin has been broken by Christ's death and resurrection.

So, our lives are lives of victory, not defeat. So, I guess everything's all fine now. No more

problems, right? Well, no. We talked about the penalty of sin, and we talked about the power of

sin, but now we have to talk about the presence of sin. And sorry to say this, but the presence

of sin still remains, and it's not just out there. It's in here. Remember, we talk about

what's opposing us in living our

Christian lives? The world, the flesh, and the devil. Well, the world and the flesh, yeah, they're

out there. It's all bad. Yeah, but the flesh is in here. Sin's been defeated, but its presence

remains. It still lingers on. We call it indwelling sin. Sometimes it's referred to as the remains of

sin or the vestiges of sin. It hasn't gone away, and it's kind of like a squatter living in your

house. We've got a squatter living in your house. We've got a squatter living in your house.

We've got a squatter. There's a battle going on with this squatter. It wants to take over the

whole house, and if we let it, it will. There's a battle we still have to fight, even though Christ

won the decisive victory. What is that song we sang? There's a battle that's still going on,

right? I know the victory's been won. Well, we got the victory, but we still have to fight.

What's that all about? If I've got the victory, why do we have to fight?

Well, yeah, we've got the victory, but we still have to fight. Paul puts it like this in Galatians.

He says, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against

the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

And we talked about sin, but what's this thing called the flesh? Well, the flesh is that aspect

of my human nature that is weak, but also has been twisted and enslaved by sin,

and the desires of my flesh war against the Spirit within me, and the Spirit against the flesh,

and my flesh has these desires. And Paul goes on to say that the works of the flesh are evident,

and then he goes on to list all kinds of sins, everything from sexual immorality, and idolatry,

and impurity, and drunkenness, and jealousy, and fightings, and anger. So,

flesh is that temptable part of me that wants to sin. The flesh and sin are in some kind of a

partnership together as squatters in the house of my life. And this explains some of the battles

that we face as Christians. Now, true, as Christians, we're not in the flesh, but we're

in the Spirit, Romans 8. But though we're not in the flesh in a comprehensive way,

the flesh is still in us. And like that squatter in the house, you're never going to be able to

completely get rid of it in this life. You can gain victory over that squatter. You can contain

him to a corner of the basement. But if you don't fight this battle against sin,

against indwelling sin, he'll spread out, and he'll take over,

so that you're the one that's living in the corner of the basement.

Now, sadly, there are some Christians who have allowed sin to so dominate them that they fall

into habits that they can't break. And some of those habits are very grievous.

And to a certain extent, this characterizes all of us. We're still temptable. Sometimes we give in.

If we do it often enough, habits develop,

and we find ourselves enslaved and entrapped again. But Paul's saying, you know what?

That's not really true. You know, some of us talk about ourselves as damaged goods,

as things that happened in the past, and we can't get away from it. They always trap us,

and they've got us in their grip. And while it's true, in a certain sense, we're all damaged goods,

we're also all salvaged goods.

And salvage,

salvage has to do with saving, rescuing, and that's what Christ does.

Now, what Paul wants us to know is that when we believe in Christ, the power of sin is broken.

The master-slave relationship that existed before no longer exists. And because this is the case,

we don't have to let sin reign, and we should not let sin reign.

So, there are three words that I put in bold letters when we read the Scripture in the beginning.

I'd just like to refer to them now, quickly. Those three words are know, K-N-O-W,

consider, and present.

When Paul says, don't you know,

that all of us

who are in Christ Jesus were baptized, don't you know? Apparently, some people don't know.

And you got to know these things. If you're going to live the Christian life, there are certain things you have to know.

And so, he talks about what we must know.

We have to know that we died with Christ,

that we were buried with him in baptism, and

that we rose with Christ, that those facts of the gospel are not just historical facts,

they're not just things that happened to Jesus, but they're things that happened to you and me.

We'll talk about that a little more in a moment. So we have to know some things,

we have to know that we're in union with Christ, and then

then the word consider, which you find I think in verse 11, consider this to be so. For the death

Christ died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must

consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word consider is an

interesting word. It could be translated reckon, count, consider. It's an accounting term, and one

way to illustrate it is if I were to deposit a thousand dollars in your account, you'd be able

to draw checks on that or use it because, you know, I'm trustworthy and I've put it in there

and you consider that to be the case.

You

you

act like it's so. And this is not make-believe. When Paul says consider yourselves dead to sin,

it's because you are dead to sin. You ought to act like you're dead to sin. And again, what we mean

there is dead to sin's dominion, rule, or mastery. It's not your, sin is not the boss of you.

I heard a little boy say that one time to me. You're not the boss of me. I said, wow, okay.

It stuck in my head. I think we can say that to sin. You're not the boss of me.

Alright.

You need to consider yourself to be

who you are, dead to sin's

mastery. But there's a third

word here. In addition to it,

Paul says you and I must present

ourselves to God and

present our members to God

as instruments for righteousness.

The negative side, do not

present your members to sin as

instruments for unrighteousness but instead present yourselves to god as those who've been

brought from death to life and your members to god as instruments for righteousness what does that

mean that means you are to devote yourself entirely as a whole and devote your members

representing your faculties your capacities your capabilities to god

don't present your members or devote them as slaves to unrighteousness don't use your eyes

to look at things you shouldn't don't use your mouth to say things you shouldn't don't let your

feet carry you to places you shouldn't go instead present yourselves to god as

those who've been brought from death to life that means yourself in its entirety and in particular

your capabilities your abilities your capacities your faculties your your mind your your your will

all of these parts of you use them present them to god as instruments for righteousness

so that's the basic flow of the argument you need to know

this is true you need to consider that it's true and then you need to present yourself to god

and if you do that again the main point is christ died to free us from sin so that we

might be devoted to god now in the last couple minutes i'd like to talk just a little bit about

how this might work out in your lives in in some ways in thinking about this in years past

i recall dealing with one young man who was dealing with the problem of lustful thoughts

that developed into a habit with pornography and and he had come to realize the sinfulness of this

and was grieved knowing that christ died for these sins and and yet still a habit had

developed in his life and how do you break that habit and so i talked to him about knowing these

things and considering them and then presenting ourselves

but the problem is when people are bound in a sin a sin like this or any other kind of sin

we're in a hurry to get over it and so the temptation would be to come up front and get

prayer and be delivered from the demon of lust well i'm not saying there's not some

truth in that and we should pray for one another and sometimes

there can be remarkable instantaneous deliveries from things but even if there is

to keep from falling back into it we need to establish patterns of living

and that takes time that takes effort that takes what what we call rehabituation

it takes some strategy of turning away from the times and places when we tend to get ourselves

into trouble and identifying what those are and replacing those bad habits with good habits

and that takes time and that takes effort and in our culture today where we want instant this

and instant that it's not very possible to do that and so i think it's important to

be very popular

besides

if i feel a certain way in order to be authentic i have to do what i feel right

if you do what you feel

i can assure you you will end up in disaster

if what you feel is sinful

you must not do that and you don't have to because sin's reign has been broken

so my suggestion to him

and my suggestion to anybody who has any problem with a besetting

or habitual sin

is to start by

taking heed to your word

and that's what i'm going to do in this passage of scripture

because when you memorize it

you will end up meditating on it

and memorization leads to meditation and meditation leads to application

and you'll find yourself

as the psalmist said

thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee

and that was in the context of

how shall a young man keep his way pure

by taking heed to thy word

thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee

and leaders in my heart that i might not sin against thee

memorization old that sounds like work

well yeah but he's like good kind of work

you will benefit

are encouraging realization scripture because it will stick with you for your

entire life

so that's one thing that you might consider doing memorizing roman six

but let's

talk about another thing

young in her young life and so those sins were always called to mind and dragged her down and

she considered herself to be damaged goods but i suggested that while that certainly may be true

and i don't want to minimize what had been done to you you were also salvaged goods and what would

happen and this happens with a lot of us is that negative thoughts associated with difficulties

can ingrain themselves in our minds and little things can trigger us so that we go right back

to not just what happened but how we felt about what happened and pull us down

does anybody here remember a music technology called records lps long playing do you remember

that there were these discs let me tell you kids they were

they were called records and they had grooves in them and there's something called a phonograph

needle that would go down into the groove as the thing turned around and it actually turned into

music now this is an amazing thing but this is what we call old technology okay well our minds

are kind of like the grooves on an old record and when we go back over the things that have

been done to us or the things that we've done in the area of sin they can be deep grooves

and then something might happen that causes us to bring the phonograph needle down

and that same old song plays again and it's the blues believe me

when you come to the realization as I talked to this lady I said you know what

let me tell you something here the most

saddest

significant thing about you is no longer your past, but Christ's past. Because you're united

with Christ. So if you just think about yourself and what happened to you, and the phonograph

needle goes down and plays that old record again and again, you know what? You don't have to sing

along with it. As a matter of fact, you can take that record and you can break it. Because the

most significant thing about you now is not your past, but Christ's past. Because you are united

with Christ. And what should be most significant for us is not anything that's happened to us or

what we've done. Not that they're insignificant, but they're superseded by the death and resurrection

of our Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago when I was pastoring in Lancaster, we supported a home for

unwed mothers called the

house of his creation and i was talking to ann pearson one day and she told me about a dynamic

that occurred with a lot of the the ladies who had found themselves in crisis pregnancy

many of whom were in that situation because of of sexual sin in their lives and through the house

of his creation they heard the gospel and many of these girls were saved and knew that their sins

were forgiven but ann told me that there was a problem that would happen to them around the time

of five months when the the quickening occurred and they began to feel the baby move within them

and then they'd be reminded of the sin that they committed that got them into this situation

but this wise lady trained these girls to whenever that happened let that be a signal to remind you

that christ died for even that sin

you

and that he is at work

working all things together for your good and so with a little bit of counseling jujitsu

she took those negative things and flipped them around and you know that's a pretty good method

when you think of those sins that you may have committed in the past and they tend to want to

drag you down or something to get you going in the present instead think that wait christ

died

for those sins he paid the penalty and christ died and rose to break the power of that sin

and even though its presence is still with me i have victory in my lord jesus christ and let

that start you thanking and praising god and what the devil would like to do to accuse you

and to bring you down will turn into an occasion for bashing him and reminding him that he's not

he's lost christ won that victory

well my friends we still have a battle that we have to fight if we know the landscape of the

battlefield we're better equipped to fight it if you are of the mentality that now that i'm a

christian everything should just be fine and i shouldn't have any problems at all then let me

disabuse you and let me disabuse you and let me disabuse you and let me disabuse you and let me

of that false notion that's not the way it is no as a matter of fact if anything the struggle is

going to become more intense because this is the very means that god uses to bring about our

sanctification we might not want it to be this way but this is the way it is and god knows what's

best so let us rejoice

in christ jesus i'll close with a quote from jc ryle i love this quote

the life of the believer is a life of victory and not of failure but the very struggles which

go on within his heart the fight that he finds it needful to fight daily the watchful jealousy

which he is obliged to exercise over his inner

man the contest between the flesh and the spirit the inward groanings which no one knows but he who

has experienced them all all testify to the same great truth and show the enormous power and

vitality of sin mighty indeed must that foe be who even when crucified is still alive and happy

is the believer who understands it and while he rejoices in christ jesus

has no confidence in the flesh

and while he says thanks be to god who gives us the victory

never forgets to watch and pray

lest he fall into temptation

sins power is strong and we can't completely eradicated and it still

dwells within us

but it's not an equal battle

grace now reigns in us through righteousness leading to

eternal life

sin no longer rain

it's there

christ his reigning anew

he are reading with him seated on the throne

so it's not that we don't have about life we do

baton we're punching downhill

we're fighting against the defeated para fight we must

the victory we will happen

we're heavenly father please help us all

grasp and understanding

of our present relationship

with sin

that its penalty

has been taken care of by our Lord Jesus

Christ that its power

has been broken but

that its presence still remain

and we can't take this victory for

granted but we must

fight the good

fight of faith so that

at the end of our days we'll be

able to say as Paul did

I have fought the good fight

Lord please bless

my brothers and sisters here

as they fight this

fight of faith in Jesus name

Amen